LGBT – Science Fiction & Fantasy Marketing Podcast

SFFMP 177: Paying the Bills as an LGBT Urban Fantasy Author with Holly Evans

April 17, 2018 SFFpodcast Author Interview, Podcast

We’re joined this week by LGBT urban fantasy author Holly Evans. She believes LGBT spec-fic is an up and coming sub-genre with a lot of potential, and even though it’s niche, she’s able to pay the bills writing it. Whether you’re interested in it or not, a lot of today’s interview should apply to any author thinking of writing in a smaller niche. Interestingly, Holly found more of an audience when she went wide with her books than when she was exclusive with Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited.

Here are some of the specifics that we covered:

Getting started in the crowded urban fantasy market.
Tropes for urban fantasy and also for LGBT fiction.
Why LGBT spec-fic may be an up-and-coming market with room for new authors to jump in.
What qualifies something as LGBT (i.e. do the main characters have to fall into that category?)?
If romance is expected and how explicit sex scenes should be if included.
The pros and cons of selecting the LGBT category on Amazon and other stores (easier to rank versus perhaps being overlooked by people who don’t think they’re looking for that).
Avoiding stereotypes.
Why Holly decided to leave KDP Select and publish her books to all the other stores.
How she’s found success in the other stores in only a few months.
Writing shorter series and wrapping individual books up so you can start new ones easily.
Whether there are any downsides to writing short.

You can visit Holly on her site and check out her books in all the major stores. Her newest series, Forged in Blood, is out now.

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holly evans, LGBT, LGBT fantasy, niche genres, urban fantasy

SFFMP 107: Writing and Selling in the Underserved LGBT Fantasy Niche with Shiriluna Nott and SaJa H

November 15, 2016 SFFpodcast Author Interview, Podcast

On today’s show, we chatted with Shiriluna Nott and SaJa H, authors of the epic fantasy series The Chronicles of Arden. They’ve got some LGBT heroes in the story, so we wanted to ask them about some of the writing and marketing challenges (and perks!) that come with the niche.

Here are a few more details of what we covered:

Moving from fan fiction to self-publishing.
Whether there are any reader expectations with spec-fic LGBT stories (i.e. romance or graphic sex or for the sexual orientation to be a big focus in the story).
If it’s necessary to warn readers if there’s going to be a non-traditional relationship in the story, even if there’s nothing explicit.
For those with an interest, is LGBT fantasy/science fiction an underserved niche that might be less competitive and easier to get noticed in than the more mainstream spec-fic categories?
Are there any unique writing or marketing challenges?
Are there any sites that specialize in mentioning LGBT spec-fiction books? (They mentioned QueerSciFi.com.)

You can find their books on Amazon or visit Shiriluna on her website or Facebook. You can also visit Saja on Facebook.